


Misnomer

by Dorminchu



Series: Insult to Injury (and appendices) [5]
Category: James Bond (Craig movies)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Bickering, Deleted Scene, Gen, Mostly Gen, Names
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 21:48:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27823279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dorminchu/pseuds/Dorminchu
Summary: 2013: On the train to Oslo, Madeleine is feeling pretty restless; Safin does his best to be charitable.[Deleted Scene!]
Relationships: Lyutsifer Safin & Madeleine Swann
Series: Insult to Injury (and appendices) [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971970
Kudos: 3





	Misnomer

**Author's Note:**

> Takes place right after Chapter Five of _Insult to Injury_. This was cute to write but a bit too directionless to keep in. (Besides, I don't think Safin would throw out a name in front of people he doesn't recognize!) So I've made another deleted scene-fic.

"It's curious. I really don't know one thing about you."

"It's not your job to know."

"Well, perhaps your name would be a good start."

"I've already given you a name." She scowled at him. He said, "What more do you need?"

Madeleine scoffed and feigned interest in the window. Time was spent in the wordlessness that comes out of having a million urgent questions but no good way to disguise one's true intent. The smooth chug of the train had a strange, somnambulant quality. Safin could not allow himself to be affected. He scanned the aisles for any visual change but found none.

"Wait, don't tell me—are you seriously implying that you have _one_ name?" Madeleine smirked. "Is this how you sign all of your sanctions, just, Safin?"

"If it helps you sleep, yes."

"Hah." She glanced out the window again. "You are impossible."

She went quiet after that. The man in the aisle behind them had not moved an inch. There was a good enough chance he was listening. Madeleine glanced up from the window as though trying to divine what else had his attention besides the latent threat. Safin did not acknowledge this in the hopes she would finally settle.

She said, "Well it isn't very good for a secret identity. You would stand out more with one name."

She wouldn't be able to keep her wits about her if she wore herself down. Perhaps it would be more prudent to simply let Madeleine talk herself into a state of exhaustion, all the while letting her think she was saying more than she was. Prudent, but not easier. For all intents and purposes it was as though she were drunk again. When No 1 first gave him the assignment to protect No 8's most valuable investment, this was not what he had been imagining.

"What makes you think I'm going to tell you anything?" he asked tersely.

"I never said you _would_."

Safin came back to the point of contention. There was no sense in getting hung-up over her curiosity. He had brought that trouble upon himself from the moment he had decided to engage with her directly. Killing her was a last resort and completely out of the question right now. If he wanted to save face he should be doing everything he could to earn her trust—he had already identified the vulnerabilities. He would turn the oversight to his advantage.

"Lyutsifer," he said after a pause. He did not look up from the general direction of the man in the aisle. There was no immediate reaction from either party.

Then Madeleine proved him wrong again: "Sorry?"

"Lyutsifer Safin."

"Yes, and I am sure you've gone by Beelzebub as well."

"Do you even know what it means?"

"Light bringer." Madeleine looked rather patronised. "If you want to be technical, it would be "bringing light", derived from the Latin _lux_ , 'light' and _ferre_ , 'to bring'." He shot her a glance out of the corner of his eye.

"And?"

Madeleine frowned slightly, trying to dredge up something she had memorised for the sake of camouflage and not thought about in a few years. "The name originally referred to the morning star, Venus. It only became associated with Satan because of other literature, such as the _Divine Comedy_ by Dante and _Paradise Lost_ by John Milton. The idea also underlies the proverbial phrase 'as proud as Lucifer.'"

"I can see your time at Oxford was well-spent."

The look of indignation on her face was almost worth the effort expended prodding at her brain. "In case you have forgotten, I am working off of..."

She trailed off. At last, Safin thought, she was going to take the hint. He returned his attention to the train-car door and ran through the itinerary one more time. Roughly five hours left from here to their destination. With any luck there would be no complications. If Madeleine were out of the picture for a little while he could perhaps afford to get up and start a conversation with their tracker. But if the situation necessitated, well, he was armed and he was confident she would be ready to deal with that possibility.

"Three!" Madeleine said, snapping him halfway out of thought. He did not give her his full attention but he tensed somewhat. " _Three_ hours of sleep, no thanks to you. So if you didn't want the history lesson, do not ask for clarification next time."

He shrugged. "It makes no difference to me what you talk about, as long as you don't make my job any more difficult." He glanced over at her. "Which you haven't."

She blinked slowly. Then she seemed to remember she was supposed to be disgruntled. "Well, I would be happy to sleep if I felt it would be safer in any way."

"You don't feel safe?" She was still glowering at him. "Well," he muttered, "I don't blame you." Safin held his tongue, waiting for the tension to abate. It did not, and so he said, "You didn't even ask what my surname meant."

"I _thought_ you wanted me to go to sleep," she hissed.

"Yes. But we have established that you don't feel safe around me." He held her gaze, very cold.

"I never said it was around you."

"Hm?"

Her shoulders stiffened, her jaw went tight. "But you have already done enough to make me think I should reconsider telling you more than I have."

"I see."

She looked like she wanted to argue but she was too tired to do much else. She slumped back in her seat.


End file.
